The Armour Archive

There are provisions in the Midrealm for epee auths. You can fence with them at practice and authorize in them at events, but they are not legal for tournaments and sparring at events. There is no foil authorization in the Middle.

The specific rule is:

E. 1M.: In the Midrealm, the only allowed light rapier is epee. Epee may be used in practices, but not in tournament competition. Fencers who hold an epee authorization may participate in out of kingdom “light rapierâ€

Sir Tristen Sexwulf wrote:

AndrescalledAJ wrote:For middle fighters I would almost think 16-17 year olds could get auths the same way my lady got her epee auth, by going to WV one weekend and asking to be authorized.

RULE #1 UNDER AUTHORIZATION REQUIREMENTS IN THE MARSHAL'S HANDBOOK:

All persons who wish to participate in SCA combat activities must authorize under the Society and Kingdom-of-residence authorization procedures.

You cannot authorize by other Kingdom's standards. Authorizations must be performed by marshals from your home kingdom in accordance with your Kingdom of Residence's standards.

Sir Tristen,

How will this affect those citizens of Calontir who hold authorizations for Rapier issued by the Kingdoms bordering their home Kingdom?

Uadahlrich
KRM Midrealm

That is a mighty fine question.
My understanding of Society Policy is subjects of Calontir, (Kingdoms are Monarchies so there are no citizens) , cannot authorize rapier because rapier is not permitted as an authorizable form by Calontir Policy.
So unless the Calontir Earl marshal has made special arrangements with neighboring the kingdom's Earl marshals to allow them to do a rapier authorization or the people who live in Calontir have filled out the paperwork to be a "Subject of "neighboring Kingdom" it would seem that they are not permitted to authorize rapier.

Great question for Omarad = marshal@sca.org
and the Calontir Earl Marshal = EarlMarshal@calontir.info

Reference this section of Marshal Handbook
I. COMBAT AUTHORIZATION REQUIREMENTS
A. General
1. All persons who wish to participate in SCA combat activities must authorize under the Society and Kingdom-of-residence authorization procedures. SCA combat activities are defined as armored combat, period fencing, combat archery siege, and marshaling. Other martial activities clearly falling within the scope above are also considered combat-related activities. Youth combat programs are not supervised at the Society level, but participation in such programs requires authorization following Kingdom-of-residence procedures.

Sir Tristen Sexwulf wrote:That is a mighty fine question.
My understanding of Society Policy is subjects of Calontir, (Kingdoms are Monarchies so there are no citizens) , cannot authorize rapier because rapier is not permitted as an authorizable form by Calontir Policy.
So unless the Calontir Earl marshal has made special arrangements with neighboring the kingdom's Earl marshals to allow them to do a rapier authorization

Sir Tristen,

We are OK then. The Society has permitted the "subjects" of the Calontir Crown to authorize Rapier in the border Kingdom nearest to them. We've always permitted them to fight at Pennsic in previous years and I just wanted to be sure this year wouldn't be any different.
My humble thanks to you for your time.

Respectfully,
Uadahlrich
KRM Midrealm

The Society Earl Marshal has ruled that there be a single Society Convention for marking minors combating with adults that replaces the many individual systems.

This standard is: A single yellow diamond no larger than 1" but no smaller than 0.5" to be placed on the front hemisphere of the helm (preferably on or near the inspection sticker.)
Minors competing with adults in Rapier will have the same diamond on the cuff of the glove of their dominant weapon hand.
This policy is effective immediately and will appear in the next printing of the Marshals Handbook.
.

The Pennsic War Marshal has decides that the convention for Pennsic War will be a little more specific:
At Pennsic the helmets of all minors combating with adults are to be marked with a single yellow 1" diamond to be placed directly above the inspection sticker. (Yellow Duct Tape is acceptable for marking.) Minor's inspection sticker must be marked with the word "MINOR".


This decision came down just this weekend after the BOD meeting
Info on www.PennsicWar.org has been updated to this standard.

So, the yellow diamonds return to the battlefield!


Val

There has been some concern about the 30' ravines in the woods.

Having been in this woods let me tell you its far worse than that. There are very few places where you can see the ground because the ferns and foliage is so dense. There are plants up to your shins and knees with logs hidden under them just waiting to trip you.
There is poison ivy mixed in with briar bushes (what a combo)
There are vision obstructing low hanging tree branches. Places where the tree roots come out of the side of the hill over your head.
Pits of muddy muck that will suck the boots right off of you if it rains.
In short this woods is PRIMATIVE and AWESOME.

There will be injuries. You may be one of them. Enter at your own risk.

Now for the good news.
I saw NO LONG NEEDLE PINES to poke you eyes. This is a far more ancient forest and it is filled with broad leaf trees. Not saying you wont take a branch in the eye but it least it wont be sap covered needle.

90% of this woods is flat.

It is more dense but not as dense as the section of the old woods with the fur trees. The broad leaves act as sound dampening. It is unlikely you will hear people passing over 20' away. It is unlikely you will see people over 40' away.

There are a few "deer paths" but other than that your top speed is probably 1 - 2 miles an hour if you value your ankles and shins.

There is a road leading to the heart of the woods that I am told the Coopers will gravel for ambulance access.

The ridgelines are excellent for re-orientation and for chirurgeons and marshals to coordinate efforts.

This woods is substantially larger than the old woods.

ALL OF IT IS KEPT IN PLAY. Yes, you heard me, ridgelines, ravines, cliffs, and all.

The word on the street is that the only limitation to banner movement is you cannot run it up a cliff. The phrase that seems to be thrown around at this point is you cannot run the banner up a hill higher than the banner pole. This decision is up to the Kings and their war council. This way no one places the banner half way up a cliff and creates a dangerous fighting environment.

Marshals say they will allow you to traverse the ravines, cliffs, hills etc but that they will call dead and send to res anyone who fights on a dangerous slope. Ejecting repeat offenders from the battle.

Although the banners cannot go up the hills the ravines offer great opportunities for troop deployment, scouting, and sneak flanking.

I think this photo reveals nothing of tactical value. Therefore, here is what the new woods looks like standing halfway up one of the ravines. You can see one of the deep paths on the left hand side of the pic.

Deleted for corrections needed.

Speaking of Rapier... this woods will be used for the rapier woods battle too.

As usual, kudo's to Omarad for ruling sensibly on society standardization issues for safety (universal use of yellow diamonds to identify minors in combat).

And I am so depressed that I can't go to Pennsic, the new woods look and sound awesome. Hope no one goes off an unseen cliff however, that would be a Very Bad Thing.

I do think minors should be able to participate at Pennsic, provided they have gone through a stringent training program and we have them marked as noted. I do worry about minors getting run over by ramped up adults (yes, the old Tuchux would have concerned me too). But I think that with adequate planning and provided they have had thorough training, it will be fine.

Assuming they have the judgement to not get launched off a 30' cliff...

On the Epee's? The sooner we get rid of epee and continue to move to things that more resemble real rapiers instead of whippy car antennas, the better. Then those arguments go away.

SCA combat should not have 'light' anything

Tristen, I think the 'no rotation' is coming from the discussions that 'no significant' rotation is allowed, that being defined as 1/8". Which isn't really no rotation, that is just what a lot of us call it, perhaps we should not do that.

However your comment "This would mean that the blunt/APD is loose (no frictional 'grip') and the *Only* thing hanging onto the blunt/APD is the tape." got my attention.

One of my arguments about shafted safety is that the only thing holding it on should not be the tape, there should be a pressure fittting or glue or something. However many archers maintain that just being taped on, as long as it does not move vertically on the shaft (pistoning) it is OK and legal (outside of Pennsic), even if there is significant rotation on the shaft indicating there isn't a direct attachment to the shaft in the form of a pressure fit/glue/pinning, etc.

They are fine with the only attachment being the external restraint in the form of the tape. I am not fine with that, but it was made clear on the known world CA list (SCA missile combat yahoo group) that the majority believe tape only to be legal and safe and the CA rules seem to back them up. When I called a head that can rotate "loose" as you did, I got in trouble with amongst others the Aethelemearc CA DEM Brada, who felt that was irresponsible and improper use of the word 'loose'.

You appear in your statement to be saying that tape alone is not adequate and there should be some sort of friction holding the tip/head on as well. I actually agree with that and support it for Pennsic, but it does not appear to be a society level rule and supporting that may get you lynched along with me. See recent known world CA list postings for details...

Richard Blackmoore

30' ravines - cool!
Dense ferns and foliage - cool!
Vision obstructing low hanging tree branches - cool
Pits of muddy muck that will suck the boots right off of you if it rains. - cool!
90% of this woods is flat. - SUPER COOL!
This woods is substantially larger than the old woods. - cool!
There is poison ivy mixed in with briar bushes - WOAH.

I don't want to be a buzzkill, but that stuff will turn me into a oozing, gibbering, scratching, half-mad shut-in for two weeks or so.

The picture was even more disturbing because the foreground looked to be mostly poison ivy. What percentage overall of this undergrowth is poison? 5%, 10%, 50%? I'd be happy to hear a guess from anyone who has been in there.

William de Faleston wrote:The picture was even more disturbing because the foreground looked to be mostly poison ivy. What percentage overall of this undergrowth is poison? 5%, 10%, 50%? I'd be happy to hear a guess from anyone who has been in there.

Not that much. Most is virginia creeper (a harmless lookalike)

Poison ivy has 3 green leaves with a reddish stem/stalk.

Kind of rare in open areas, it usually/near hides under trees.
The oils of Poison Ivy typically take 15 - 20 minutes to penetrate skin. If you touch some scurb with water and sand/soil for a few seconds and you should be fine.

There is more poison ivy than the old woods but not an obnoxious amount. It is a common plant in this area but there is no more of it in this woods than in any other deep woods of this area of the world.

If you are concerned I recommend doing a woods walk yourself to check it out prior to the battle. The woods is open to anyone who wants a look after landgrab begins.

Thanks for the detail. I used to not worry about ivy until a few years back when I had a nightmarish outbreak. The effects are also cumulative, meaning the more times you break out the more sensitive you become.

I've gotten petty good at picking it out over the past few years. The red stems are often a giveaway as is the shiny leaf texture. If anyone else is sensitive I recommend using a product called Zanful. It's a cream that binds to and rinses off the urishiol oil that causes the allergic reaction. It's godawful expensive but it works.

I probably will take a stroll though the woods beforehand. Knowing where the 30-foot cliffs are might also be helpful.

William de Faleston wrote:I probably will take a stroll though the woods beforehand. Knowing where the 30-foot cliffs are might also be helpful.

Cliffs are along the north and east perimeter of the woods.
Kind of like fighting in a bowl that has had two sides broken off. although there is significant flat land at the top of the ridgeline on the east side. Could be fights up there.

aaaccckkk

just reading about Poison Ivy makes me itch.... I will HAVE to scout out the area before hand.

regards
ThorvaldR

Agreed. I fight with a safeflex blade, and will forfeit any bout that my opponent insists on an epee.

Richard Blackmoore wrote:On the Epee's? The sooner we get rid of epee and continue to move to things that more resemble real rapiers instead of whippy car antennas, the better. Then those arguments go away.

Richard Blackmoore

Sir Tristen Sexwulf wrote:Not that much. Most is virginia creeper (a harmless lookalike)

Huh? Virginia creeper looks nothing like poison ivy.

Kind of off topic, but if you happen to get poison ivy in the woods battle, Auntie Arwen's Spices has a jewelweed balm that seems to help. We picked some up last year and like it. Not sure if it'll do much if you happen to fall down in a patch of it, but for minor contact it works pretty well.

Vladimir wrote:

Sir Tristen Sexwulf wrote:Not that much. Most is virginia creeper (a harmless lookalike)

Huh? Virginia creeper looks nothing like poison ivy.

It looks close enough that it's listed as a look-alike plant in most landscaping references. The most obvious difference is that Virginia Creeper has 5 leaflets. But that's the only significant difference to creeping poison ivy at this time of year in the Northeastern US. It looks very similar at first glance especially when the outer leaflets are underdeveloped.

Vladimir wrote:Huh? Virginia creeper looks nothing like poison ivy.

The most common poison ivy look-alike is Virginia creeper. It can easily be distinguished from poison ivy by the following characteristics:
Virginia Creeper has three to five divided leaflets, which are palmate like an outstretched hand.
Blue-black berries grow along the stem.
The vine can be either trailing or climbing.

Perhaps they don't look alike to me because I'm so familiar with both of them.

I'm an eagle scout, a backpacker, work in a park, and got my degree in forestry and wildlife.

Anyway, sorry for the thread derail. Back to the subject at hand.

If you have more woods pictures, I can post them to my photobucket...

Sir Tristen Sexwulf wrote:I think this photo reveals nothing of tactical value. Therefore, here is what the new woods looks like standing halfway up one of the ravines. You can see one of the deep paths on the left hand side of the pic.